E-waste is a growing concern of our time. As our lives get more and more depended on electronic and electrical appliances, the waste generated from the same also keeps increasing. Sreerupa Sanyal investigates into the phenomenon of growing e-waste in South Africa.

Thursday, 6 November 2014

E waste: An ethical concern for information age?

Piles of e-waste at DESCO

Many academics, especially in developing economies, are pondering on the question of whether
electronic waste and its proper management should be placed as an ethical
concern.

Most developing countries lag in the management of
electronic waste. Despite major international treaties such as the Basel
Convention (read more in Key Term of Reference) electronic waste is still
exported to many such countries as India, China, Nigeria, Ghana and the DRC. In fact the world's largest electronic waste dump site is situated in Accra, Ghana.

Prof. Marlene Holmner of the University of Pretoria says
that as there is no awareness among consumers of electronic goods, electronic
waste is therefore is not considered a ‘priority waste’ in South Africa and
hence its recycling and management is hardly given any importance.

John van Coller, from DESCO, one of the largest electronic
recyclers in Gauteng, echoes the same sentiment.

"Currently the percentage of e-waste that is being generated
in South Africa is wholly unknown."

DESCO receives almost 1000 tons of e-waste per month chief
among which are computer monitors, mother boards, Internal Processing Units (IPUs)
and even ATM machines.

Says van Coller: "The amount of e-waste we receive and
recycle is like a drop in the ocean."

Back in 2008, when legislation for waste management was
brought into force in the country, there had been an idea of making an
inventory of e-waste that is generated within the borders of South Africa.
According to van Coller: "We were really excited by the idea of an e-waste
inventory. Unfortunately the Dept of Environmental Affairs never gave the
go-ahead and it was never done."

Queries from the Department have remained unanswered.

According to Prof. Eric Achankeng from the University of
Adelaide, South Africa suffers from a situation where there is a major vacuum
related to e-waste management. Writing in an academic paper, Globalization, Urbanization and Municipal Solid Waste Management in
Africa, he writes, "… there is no extant mechanism in the country with
regard to proper management and disposal of electronic waste."

Agbogbolshie dump site: the largest e-waste dump site in the world.

E-waste management is rapidly becoming an ethical concern
among many information technology practitioners. According to Prof. Achankeng: "E-waste management and
recycling should not only be treated as an environmental concern but also as an
ethical concern. When consumers buy electronic goods, it must be their moral,
social and ethical obligation to inquire into what happens to the goods when it
reaches the end of its life cycle."

Holmner and van Coller feel that in the particular situation
of South Africa, the awareness about e-waste is so insignificant that far from
seeing it as an ethical problem, both consumers and corporate have to first
view it as a problem.

The majority of e-waste
management is currently in the hands of informal recyclers. According to Prof.
Holmner, informal recyclers often do not have the education nor the skill to
properly dispose off electronic waste especially waste containing radio-active
and other harmful metals. These often end up in the various landfills around
the country thus posing a major health hazard to people living in the
surrounding areas.

Piles of scrap in Hatherly landfill, Pretoria

In an academic paper written in 2010, Jinglei Yu and Yang
Yan from Nankai University writes that since 2000, Asia Pacific and Middle/East
Africa saw the fastest growth of PC sales while the developed regions of North
America and Western Europe lagged behind. According to the paper, by 2030, the
number of obsolete PCs in developing regions will double that of developed
regions with 400-700 million units in developing countries compared to 200-300
million in developed regions.

Numbers like the above, according to Prof. Holmner are
indeed a cause for concern.

“There is a dire need of legislation in the country with
regards to e-waste, but even more importantly there is a dire need to educate
people to the effects of electronic waste. Awareness about e-waste among
consumers and companies should be our first priority.”

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Key Terms of Refernce

Advanced Recycling Fee (ARF): ARF is a legislation that is in place in many developed countries such as Switzerland, Sweden and Denmark. According to ARF, when a customer purchases new electrical/electronic equipment, a nominal fee is levied upon the customer at the time of purchase. This amount in turn is to be used to recycle the purchased equipment. The goal of the legislation is to provide a way for the customers to dispose off their electronics responsibly while providing funds for a green industry.

Basel Convention: Basel convention is an international treaty that controls the transboundary trade of hazardous waste and their disposal. It was the first international treaty to address the growing concern of e-waste. For more information, please visit: http://www.basel.int/

Calsining/Pelting: Another process in electronic waste management. Small electronic goods such as PC monitors, mother boards, Integrated Processing units etc are put into a machine and important metals such as gold, copper, platinum etc are separated from the electronics. Most South African formal electronic recyclers do not use this method as it is expensive and often most metals are not separated.

E Wasa: This is the non-profit, umbrella organization of all formal e-waste recyclers in South Africa. Headquartered in Durban, the organization strives to regulate the e-waste disposal and recycling mechanism in the county. For more information, please visit: http://www.ewasa.org/

EEE: End of lifecycle for electronic/electrical equipments

E-waste: Electronic or electrical equipments, which have reached the end of their normal life cycles and cannot be used without making any changes to the original model can be referred to as E-waste. For more information visit:

Extended Producer Responsibility (EPR): EPR is another environmental strategy where the manufacturer of the product is responsible for the entire lifecycle of the product and especially for the take-back, recycling and final disposal. In South Africa, the EPR is in place as a regulatory mechanism in the National Waste Management Strategy (http://wastepolicy.environment.gov.za/home/nwms_v1/3/10).

Landfills: A method often used in solid waste management. Most solid waste is disposed off by burying them into pits formed into ground and reclaiming these pits for further recycling.

National Waste Management Strategy: The National Waste Management Strategy is a broad strategy informing the National Waste Management Act, 2008, South Africa’s sole legislation on waste management. It came into effect in 2012 and all-waste management strategies stem from this. For more information please visit : http://wastepolicy.environment.gov.za/ or

Rotterdam Convention: It is a multi-lateral treaty to promote shared responsibilities in relation to import and export of hazardous chemicals. The convention promotes open exchange of information and calls on exporters of hazardous chemicals to use proper labeling, include directions on safe handling and inform purchasers of any known restrictions or bans. For more information, please visit: http://www.pic.int/

Shredding: A process in electronic waste recycling wherein important metals such as copper, platinum, gold etc are shredded or torn away from computer processers, monitors, ATM machines etc. It is generally done through manual labour and is often cost-effective technique of recycling electronic waste.

The Africa Institute for Environmentally Sound Management for Hazardous and Other Waste: Established after South Africa became a signatory to the Basel Convention, the Africa Institute is the primary research institute and Basel Regional Office for all English speaking states in southern Africa who have become a signatory to the Basel, Rotterdam or Stockholm Conventions. Though housed under the Department of Environmental Affairs (DEA), the Africa Institute is an independent research organization. For more information, please visit: www.africainstitute.info